With the filing of the Facebook IPO, it looks like the social media space is maturing. Now comes the question: who is going to deal with all this data that social media is generating? how are we going to measure the live reaction of consumers to events? A whole slew of new startups are tackling three new areas:- “Big Data”, which involves ramping up the processing power of sorting through mountains of consumer data.
- “Machine-to-Machine” communications. These new technologies include sensors on home fuel tanks that can signal to oil-delivery companies when they need refilling.
- “Internet of Things”, Internet-connected devices that collect data and communicate with other physical devices.
"Big Data" development relies on the constantly dropping costs of hardware and storage. But processing power to run this data on simultaneous or live basis is a whole new discipline that scientists, mathematicians and programmers are innovating in with new algorythms.
"Machine-to-Machine" relies on the advent of communicating devices and robotics. This can start from a simple chip on a product and move all the way to sophisticated robots that can execute a complex emergency process.
"Internet of Things" can be considered a subset of the previous category, however due to its broad base of consumers on the internet, it is starting to become its own category.
Where are we going with this? is this transparency going to take our lives to a whole new level of "The Herd Mentality"? we are certainly going in that direction, and rapidly...
